painted klown's review of dual emo ultra 12s

[paintedklown]

Hey all.

Well, today was the big day. My 2 Emotiva Ultra 12 powered subwoofers arrived.

Prior to this I have only used subs that were part of a "home theater in a box" system so my personal ownership and experience is somewhat limited. Just to provide everyone with sort of a "reference point" for my sub experience and knowledge. Also, I have not heard any SVS, Epik, Def Tech, Aperion, ect..subs to compare these to.

Anyway...here is my review.

Skipping all the formalities of the unpacking and my setup of them, lets get straight to the juice that everyone is wanting to read. How do these perform?

I will start by saying that I could have purchased just one of these and would have been pretty darn satisfied with the performance. Especially getting these at the sale price. They really are an excellent deal and I would recommend them to those looking to add some low end for a low cost. ;D

I have spent most of my day watching the last 45 mins or so of Transformers over and over again, along with segments of TDK, Kung Fu Panda, and the new Star Trek.

The bass is window rattling, couch rumbling, headache inducing, and insanely fun to listen to! ;D

I do not have an spl meter to provide you with the details of how may DB's I was hitting but I assure you that with the volume up, it gets a little difficult to sit in the room with it for an extended amount of time. It's pretty intense and you FEEL the bass shaking everything around you, and inside of you. I was seriously afraid that I was going to break a window at times.

So...having said all that...here are some poitives and negatives.

Positives: Cost to performance ratio. Build quality. Looks. Emotiva is a company that stands by their products. Will provide your home theater with some nice bass. The bass is tight and musical. I was actually able to blend it with my B&W's quite well. And this is coming from a guy who has NEVER been able to blend a sub very well. I am sure with some more experience and an SPL meter, I could do much better but I am very pleased for now. I did not notice any flexing or bending of the cabinet when trying to push them to their limits, just to see what would happen. I played Bass Mekanik - Quad maximus with the receiver volume all the way up, the subwooofer output all the way up, and with the subs themselves all the way up!!! I did notice that the subs were stressing out a bit but nothing to be too concerned about (especially) at this price point. I was actually quite surprised they could withstand this type of torture as this was WAY louder than I would ever actually listen to music or watch a movie...so these subs easily meet my bass needs.

Negatives: It IS a cheap subwoofer and therefore has some limitations. The output does not get quite as insane as you think it should given the size of the woofers. I expected it to be more intense I suppose...not that it wasn't, but perhaps not quite what I figured it would be. You don't have to turn it up very much to get the woofer moving, but like all "budget" products of this nature, after a bit it doesn't seem to get much louder...if that makes sense...The frequency response isn't extremely deep either. I know that it is stated at 22hz but I really felt that it didn't put out much sound 'till about 25hz with the REAL output starting to come in at closer to 30hz. YMMV and I could simply be the victim of a crappy room.

I am extremely tired and ready for bed so I will wrap it up here. I will probably add more tomorrow though...

I do want to say that if I had to do it all over again, I would DEFINITELY buy the ultra 12...except I would have only bought one of them and used the extra on another amp.

[krellion]

I also bought two U12's. One thing you should check is the phase control, first check just one to make sure in phase with mains, then turn the other on and make sure it's in phase with everything else. Turning the phase control I found it very easy to hear in from out of phase. You will hear the most bass when everything is in phase. Also, as the manual stated, placement can be worth playing with, even pointing the woofer at a rear or side wall. You might even try stacking them in a corner. Or, try each in a corner with the woofers firing at each other.

I also think with more experience with other subs you will see the U12's output is actually pretty good.

What receiver are you using and are you using it's crossover or the sub's crossover?

[paintedklown]

Congrats on the two 12s.

I have been talking with a friend on another forum and I really believe that part of my problem is my seriously out dated receiver.

Anyway, I did the sub woofer crawl and placed the subs in the front-right corner of the room, firing to the left (toward the television)

One of them is stacked on top of the other one. For setup, I turned off the x-over on the sub as I read that "stacking" crossovers can cause issues with phase, ect.

I will be honest and say that I am unaware what the crossover point is for my receiver as it was originally part of a HTIB system and there isn't much information (especially technical) available for it.

For setting the phase, I played around with the bottom sub (while the other one was off) but felt that there wasn't really much of a change by changing it (phase) so I left it at zero.

For the top sub, I played some bass heavy music, test tones, and regular rock with a smooth bass line and played around with the phase while both subs were running. There was a "sweet spot" in the phase where the output seemed the strongest. That is where the top sub is set.

I ran sine sweeps From 20 hz to 20k hz with and without the subs engaged to be sure everything was ok, and it seems to be fine with everything directed where it should go.

I have played test tones from a couple different test discs and still I do not feel that output below 25hz is that strong...with 30 hz being the point that SERIOUS output begins. I have decided to try an experiment and bypass my receiver altogether. I am going to try running my mp3 player directly into the subs RCA inputs and flipping on the x-over to see what that yields me....will report back with my findings...

As far as overall output is concerned, I think that the issue may just be the fact that I have them in a fairly large room. I have not measured it, but if I had to "guesstimate" I would say that it is about 20'x35' feet or more...trying to be conservative with my estimation. I will do a proper measurement and cubit feet calculation as soon as I can.

EDIT: I did the test with the mp3 player. The results were the same.

By the way, readers of my thoughts, do not think that I am displeased or unsatisfied with my Emo sub purchases. After all, I am not sending them back.

I am merely posting my findings regarding these subs in my room.

Others have reported that they thought these subs played deeper than they could hear, and at least down to 20hz. I am not doubting their ability to perform in any way. I am not doubting the findings of fellow listeners whatsoever.

Admittedly, I am not good with setting up subs and I feel that my issues are largely room related. These subs are in a fairly large room that is not treated in any way, and it also opens up to the kitchen and hallway.

I do not know how to find nulls, bumps, or have the gear or "know how" to graph the frequency response. I just know what I do/do not hear, I even tried listening with my head right in front of the subs, there was some output at 22hz but nothing to write home to mom about...maybe I have bad hearing and cannot hear low frequencies very well. I know that I can't really hear anything above roughly 13.5k hz or so (I have tested and verified this with tone generators and sine sweeps many times)...while running sine sweeps and test tones with friends around, my friends will be wincing in pain and I will be checking to see if the volume is up. I can't even "sense" there is a sound. So...maybe it's just me.